Open participation through a fast Internet

Menu

Category Archives: Sports

This is what we can expect to see on the Internet if the duopoly
is left to its own devices:

NFL Network is filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against cable TV giant Comcast in the latest legal wrangling between the two.

The network announced Thursday it had served Comcast with the required 10-day notice of its intent to file a complaint. NFL Network is accusing the nation’s largest cable operator of discriminatory and anticompetitive treatment in violation of the Cable Act of 1992.

The two sides have been feuding over Comcast’s decision to place NFL Network on a premium sports tier that customers must pay extra to receive. NFL Network sued Comcast in October 2006 over the move.

I’m not sure AT&T wanted that kind of reaction to watching a
Texas football team in Austin, the capital of the second most
populous state.
The local cableco in Austin, Time Warner, didn’t have the game
(Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers),
which was on the NFL Network, which has a deal with AT&T.
Most legislators didn’t even show up to watch.
Interesting, considering that legislators and regulators are
the real audience of the duopoly.

The Defendants (Google, YouTube) have willfully violated the intellectual
property rights that were created and made valuable by the investment
– sometimes the life-long investment – of creativity, time, talent,
energy, and resources of content producers other than the Defendants.
The complaint asserts several legal claims against the Defendants,
including direct copyright infringement, contributory copyright
infringement, and vicarious copyright infringement.